Chapter 9 - Displacement
Mei-Wan stood looking down at the secure vault, two meters long and a meter wide, within a storage area of the lower engineering decks.
"Sorry this is taking so long," Kristen said. "But we wanted to make sure it couldn't get loose again."
Mei-Wan watched as various seals came apart and green lights changed to red. The door of the vault slid away revealing the damaged and headless humanoid shaped machine.
Mei-Wan stepped cautiously up to it as Bishop ran a tricorder over the machine.
"Don't worry," Kristen said. "There are no energy signatures."
Mei-Wan peered at the lifeless husk. "How could anyone have thought this was me?"
"It sounded like you… in a lot of ways, it acted like you," Kristen said with a smile. "Before she..."
"It," Mei-Wan corrected.
"Okay, 'it'," Kristen agreed. "Before it gave me a concussion, it apologized for hurting me in pretty much the way I'd expect you would if you had no choice but to hurt someone."
"I hardly think that qualifies as a reason to consider it me," Mei-Wan said with a frown.
"Look, I'm not sure why Akala had you come down here, but there's one thing I'd like to say, if you don't mind."
Mei-Wan's curiosity kept her attention on the G'voda machine.
"Melissa is my friend," Kristen said. "And Jack... Jack's a friend too."
Mei-Wan's eyes stared hard at her. "And I should forgive them? That's what you're trying to say, isn't it?"
"It's not my place to tell you what to do. If it were me, I'd be mad as hell, but... they didn't do this to hurt you."
"That doesn't make it any easier."
"They each needed someone who could understand what they were going through," Kristen told her.
Mei-Wan lips tightened. She needed someone now, but the two people she would have thought she could depend on were the very ones who had hurt her.
Kristen exhaled. "Jack's a good guy. You have to believe that."
Mei-Wan's anger gave a little ground. "I know," she whispered. "But how can I trust either of them again?"
"From my perspective, they haven't done anything to violate your trust," Kristen said. "They just made the mistake of wanting to go on with their lives when they thought you were dead."
"I don't blame them for that."
Kristen's face became stern. "Yes you do. You may not want to believe it, but that's exactly what you blame them for."
Mei-Wan started to walk out.
"I hope you never have to go through what they did," Kristen said. "I imagine that judgmental streak you have would turn on you and make your life a living hell."
Mei-Wan started to say something, but left instead.
***
30 December 2378...
Melissa Vargas entered Jack McCall's quarters for the first time in nearly a week. She understood why they'd kept their distance from one another, but that didn't make it any easier to live with.
She found Jack in the bedroom packing. "Aren't you going to tell me what this mission is about?" she asked.
"I really shouldn't," he said as he continued to pack a small over the shoulder bag. "It's classified."
Melissa raised a single eyebrow. "I am your operations officer, Jack."
He exhaled. "Okay, but this stays with you."
She nodded.
"The G'voda are constructing some sort of temporal device," Jack said. "We have to stop them before they get it operational."
"Why you? And why Mei?"
Jack shook his head. "Mei and Hank were specifically requested."
"By whom?"
"Melissa..."
"Oh come on, Jack! You've told me it involves time travel, what could be more secret than that?"
Jack stared at her for several seconds, then returned to packing.
Melissa's eyes widened. "You're scared, aren't you?"
Jack closed his bag. "The G'voda mucking around with time isn't my idea of a good thing."
"It's not that," she replied. "There's something else about this."
Jack walked up to her. "Please don't ask me anymore, Melissa."
Both of them reached to hold the other, but they stepped back before the embrace was complete.
"Sorry," Melissa said.
"No, it's..." Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he turned toward the door.
"Are you sorry?" she asked quietly.
Jack stopped. "About almost hugging you?"
"No, about what happened between us the last five months," she said.
He took a deep breath. "Melissa, this probably isn't the best time to get into this."
He turned away again.
"I love you," she said.
Jack came to a halt. "I know," he whispered, refusing to face her.
She took a step toward him. "If you could go back five months and tell yourself about Mei being alive, would you?"
"That would violate a whole book-full of regulations."
"Damn it, Jack!"
He slowly turned to look at her. "I... look, we didn't know."
"Would you change things if you could? Would you go back and do things differently?"
"No one is omniscient, Melissa," Jack said with a grin. "And I'm not just speaking off the top of my head. That comes from a very reliable source."
Melissa tilted her head. "Another secret source of information?"
"The same one."
"You know my curiosity will not let this rest."
Jack chuckled. "The point is, I can't expect myself to know everything and neither can you. We're beings with a limited handle on the facts."
She nodded and lowered her head. "It doesn't make me feel any better."
"I know," he said, putting his arms around her. "We thought Mei was dead. Every piece of information we had told us she was."
As much as she enjoyed feeling his arms wrapped around her again, she stepped back and looked into his eyes. "But now you know differently."
"Yes, I do, but..." He walked to the other side of the room. He wanted to be sure what he had to say didn't hurt her. "All I can ever do is make decisions based on the facts I have and on who I am," Jack told her. "Falling in love with you was a part of who I am."
She smiled, but tried not to let her hopes take flight just yet. "I know," she whispered.
He stepped up to her. "But as you said, now I know differently. Mei is alive."
Melissa closed her eyes, expecting her fears to come to pass.
"I won't apologize for what happened between you and I," he said. "Not to Mei. Not to anyone."
She looked at him. "But?"
"I have to decide what to do--- what's right."
"What about what your heart tells you?" she asked.
A faint smile came to Jack's face. "If I'm acting out of who I am, they'll be one and the same."
She finally nodded, not feeling any more reassured, but she did feel better about their situation.
He reached up and softly caressed her cheek. "I wish I had more, but that's all I can give you right now."
She forced a smile. "It's enough... for now."
"I've made decisions before that I've had… still have, trouble living with," he said. "I don't intend this to be one of them."
Melissa closed her eyes and put her arms around him, afraid it might be for the last time. "Come back safe." she said. She wanted to add, "to me", but decided against it.
He looked at her, knowing she felt the same conflict he did. He did love her, that he was certain of, but he also loved Mei-Wan with just as much, if not more certainty.
He leaned down. Their lips touched gently for nearly a minute. Afterward, Melissa closed her eyes and held him tight.
A few minutes later, Jack threw his bag over his shoulder and walked out of his quarters.
As Melissa watched him go, she tried to believe he would come back to her. She thought she'd helped Jack get his life back the last five months, but what she saw in his face when Mei-Wan took her first breath in sickbay made her think that Jack had only found his life again when Mei-Wan had regained hers.
***
Five hours later, the Defiant class Abdiel was well on it's way to the Folam system at high warp and under cloak. Only Jack, Mei-Wan, and Hank knew what their mission was about, the crew of the Abdiel and the extra security team brought aboard were still in the dark about why they were going to a system none of them had ever heard of before.
Jack walked into the ship's messhall on Deck Two and was surprised to find it nearly empty. He thought he'd have a quiet chat with the woman who sat alone drinking a cup of hot something, but as he got near enough to her, he realized it was Mei-Wan.
She turned around and saw him. Neither of them said anything for almost twenty seconds. Finally Jack smiled.
"You mind if I join you?"
Mei-Wan motioned to the seat across from her.
Jack walked over to the replicator and got a cup of hot chocolate. He sat down opposite her at the table.
"Hot chocolate?" she asked with a grin.
"I find it helps me sleep."
"One of Preston's prescriptions?" Mei-Wan asked.
"No, it was something..." he stopped, realizing the name he was about to say. But he decided hiding wasn't going to help anything. He was through with hiding. "It was something Melissa suggested."
Mei-Wan fought off her initial reaction and forced a smile. "Probably one of those remedies her dad taught her. From what I've been able to tell he's quite a character."
Jack chuckled and took a sip from his cup.
She looked up at him, seeing his smile. "Jack, are you happy with Melissa?"
His merry expression faded. "Mei, I really don't think this is the time for us to discuss this."
"With the lives we lead, when do you think we'll find a better time?" she asked with a smirk.
"I guess that's a good point," he said with a reluctant smile. He took another drink from his cup.
"Were the two of you happy before I came back?"
Jack lowered his head. "Mei, we were both hurting. I'd lost my wife and she'd lost her best friend."
"Was that all your relationship was about?"
"For a while, yes, it was," he said. "But it became more than that."
"You love her, don't you?" Mei-Wan asked softly.
Jack looked directly at her. "Is that really the question you want to ask?"
Mei-Wan took a deep breath. "I need to know, Jack."
"Why?" he asked. "So you can decide whether or not there's a chance for us to get back together?"
"Don't you think it has an impact on if there's going to be an 'us'?"
Jack took a long drink. "I think you need to focus first on how you feel about me... about you and I," he told her. "You're trying to play it safe, Mei."
"No I'm not," she said flatly.
He leaned forward. "Mei, you want to know if I'm going to stay with Melissa before you decide if you want us to get back together. If you think Melissa and I are going to be together, then you can avoid the issue."
"I'm not avoiding anything, Jack," she said, more with sadness than the irritation he had expected.
"Then tell me, do you want us to be together?" he pressed.
"I want..." she hesitated, fighting back the combination of love and pain welling up inside her. "I want you to be happy, and if you and Melissa are happy together I don't want to interfere with that."
"I didn't ask about me and Melissa. I asked about our marriage, Mei."
Mei-Wan closed her eyes a moment. It was always so difficult to decide what to do when it came to her and Jack. Their marriage had been so painful at so many points, but the thought of finally deciding to turn her back on it--- on him--- was as if she were trying to decide to murder something within herself. It wasn't rational, she knew, but it was there and it was a part of who she was.
She used to believe it was love. Now she wondered if there was something far less noble at the heart of how she felt about the man across the table from her--- the man she had shared a bed with for much of the last two years.
No, it is love! her mind cried out. It has to be!
"I still love you," she said softly to him. "I probably always will, but loving someone isn't the same as being able to make a relationship work."
"I know that now," he whispered.
She looked at him. Something was different about Jack, something she hadn't noticed before. "Your relationship with Melissa works, doesn't it?"
"Mei..."
She smirked. "I know, I'm not answering the question again." Mei-Wan stood and pushed her chair toward the table. "I wanted to be angry about the two of you, but I think I was more hurt than anything."
"I'm sorry," Jack said. "Neither of us meant to hurt you. You had every right to be angry. You thought we had betrayed you."
"Having a right doesn't make it the right thing, Jack," she told him. "The two of you simply moved on with your lives."
"So, what's your answer, Mei? What do you want to do about our marriage?"
"I..." All of the air left her lungs. The fear had returned. She stepped up to the table. "I don't know if I can give you an answer. I don't... I don't really know what I want. Not right now at least."
"That's an honest answer," Jack said with a nod.
"How about you? Do you know what you want?"
"Nothing I have to say matters a damn until you make up your mind, Mei." He finished his drink and set the cup down on the table. "That's been the case all along. I was just too stubborn to accept it."
She nodded. "I guess it is a little ridiculous for me to expect you to be the one to make a decision when I'm the one who forced the issue in the first place."
"Why does that sound like something from Akala?" Jack asked with a grin.
Mei-Wan returned his grin. "My expectations are something she and I have been working on."
"She can be unbearable sometimes can't she?"
"Yeah," Mei-Wan agreed. Then her mood changed. "I should have gone to see her a long time ago."
Jack got up from his seat and smiled at her. "Worry about finding your own happiness, Mei. The rest will sort itself out."
She looked at him, surprised he was so much at ease with the situation they found themselves in. She wasn't sure if it was because the dangerous nature of the mission ahead had put things in perspective for him, or if it was that he was truly in love with Melissa.
But Mei-Wan was certain of one thing--- she liked this new aspect of his personality.
Jack headed toward the door. "Goodnight, Mei."
"Goodnight," she replied as he left the room.
Mei-Wan turned to look out the window as the stars streaked past. She could tell he had changed for the better in a lot of ways. She began to wonder if losing her had been the best thing which had ever happened to Jack McCall.
She wondered if the same would be true for her if she moved on with her own life.
***
31 December 2378…
The U.S.S. Abdiel slid into a high orbit around the soot colored world of Folam Six. Jack, Mei-Wan, and Hank stood on the bridge along with Falco and his command crew looking at a series of scans appearing on the main viewscreen.
The ship's CO was frowning.
"A temporal weapon?" Falco asked, leaning back in his command chair. "I hate all that time travel crap."
"Well, then you and I finally have something in common," Jack said with a grin.
Falco returned the grin. "The Universe is full of wonders."
"Uh oh," Hank said from the tactical station. "I knew it. One day from retirement and wouldn't it be just my luck."
Everyone else turned to him.
"What is it?" Jack asked.
"They've got some sort of dispersal field operating down there," Hank said.
"Meaning we can't get accurate scans," Mei-Wan added.
"And this one is very effective," Hank said. "The field covers an area of a hundred kilometers. If we didn't know to look for something on this planet we wouldn't even detect the field."
"Great," Falco mumbled. He turned to Jack. "Now what?"
"Evans, Lt. McCall, and myself will take a shuttle down with the security team to assess the situation," Jack said.
"You sure that's a good idea?"
"Why?"
"Well, not that I really give a damn, but you are the Chamberlain's captain," Falco stated. "Isn't there a rule about the CO not going into harms way. I think I read that somewhere."
"Usually, yes," Jack agreed. "But in this case I've been told we are supposed to be here, so I figure wherever the mission goes, we go."
Falco frowned. "More time crap?"
Jack nodded.
"Your funeral," he told Jack. "Me, I'd just stay in orbit and blow whatever time machine they've got down there all to hell with a couple of quantum torpedoes."
"Unfortunately, that option seems to have been removed from our bag of tricks," Jack said.
Mei-Wan turned to them. "Perhaps not," she said. "We can use an isolinear tag once we're down on the surface to mark the time device and then signal up to the Abdiel to target that location."
Falco smiled. "I like the sound of that."
"It's likely the field works both ways," Mei-Wan said, looking at the sensors. "It blinds them as much as it does us."
"They've probably got a ship or two out on patrols in the outer areas of the system," Hank said. "They wouldn't want anything this close to attract attention."
"And with the Abdiel under cloak, we're fairly safe," Jack said.
"Just to remind everyone," Falco said. "The G'voda were able to penetrate the cloaks of the Bowman and the Kinkaid when they went to Nybiros."
"But that was with the advanced sensor systems that planet employed," Jack stated. "There's no evidence they're scanning for anything here."
"Then we take a shuttle down and find out what's going on." Hank said.
Jack turned to Falco. "And once we locate this temporal device and tag it, you can blow it straight to hell."
"My pleasure," Falco smiled.
***
Setacvas stood on the surface of Folam Six watching the G'voda begin the activation process for the device they had finished constructing less than an hour ago. Each minute that passed seemed like an eternity to him--- an eternity in which his enemies might destroy what he felt was his last chance to save those of his kind.
If this site were attacked he could always allow all of his power to manifest itself, but he knew that would destroy the body of Jeremiah McCall which he now inhabited. In the months which had passed he had not only grown used to living in a flesh and blood body again, but now craved every sensation it allowed him to experience. He was addicted to being physically alive again.
He nodded to Zachary who was about to step into the small craft they had brought with them. If Zachary succeeded, the mistakes of the G'voda would be erased from history and Setacvas and his kind would have an opportunity to finally deliver a devastating blow to their enemies.
Zachary entered the craft while the two halves of the circular device began to glow as energies beyond the imagination of mere mortals started the process of tearing time asunder.
Jack, Mei-Wan, Hank, and the twenty member security team slowly moved up a hill just overlooking the G'voda encampment. The dispersal field was still playing havoc with their tricorders, but their ears had brought them the last few kilometers to their goal.
Jack slowly peered over the hill. "Damn it!" he whispered as he returned to the others. "They've activated it. We have to make our move now!"
Hank turned to his security force and sent half of them one direction and the others the opposite way.
"Shoot at anything that moves," Hank said as he, Jack, and Mei-Wan prepared to go over the hill. "I'll make my way to the device."
"Wrong," Jack said. "I will."
"Are you crazy?" Hank demanded.
"No, I'm younger and in better shape," Jack said with a friendly smile as he grabbed the isolinear tag from Hank's hand.
Jack gave Mei-Wan a last glance.
The three of them then went over the hill.
Setacvas took a full load of air into Jeremiah McCall's lungs as a flare of brilliant light erupted from the device, twisting and manipulating time beyond all sanity.
Zachary's ship slowly lifted into the air and began moving toward the portal where a glowing mass of energy danced about threatening to destroy whatever it touched.
A flash exploded on the side of the craft, but it didn't come from the temporal distortion they had created. Setacvas turned and saw a group of Starfleet security officers coming over the hill firing phaser rifles at everything in the camp. A nearby G'voda technician fell as a section of his metal head exploded in a shower of debris.
"Stop them!" Setacvas called out. "Hold them just a few minutes more!" But then his eyes focused on someone he had not expected.
Coming over the same hill, firing her own phaser rifle, Mei-Wan stared directly at him.
"Impossible! Her mind was transferred! The Vedala must have taken her from Nybiros! Only they could have done this!" Setacvas screamed, his mind racing with insane fear.
In that moment, while Setacvas was distracted, the mind of Jeremiah McCall once again took command of his body. Understanding he might have only a few moments, he turned to the other G'voda.
"Cease fire!" he ordered.
Confused, the G'voda lowered their weapons and stopped their defense.
In that moment, Jack McCall saw his father standing only thirty feet away. "Dad?"
Jeremiah smiled at his son, but they had no time for a happy reunion. He could feel Setacvas forcing his way back into the control centers of his brain.
"Go Jack!" he shouted. "Stop Zachary!"
Jack didn't hesitate another second. He took off in a dead run for the device just as Zachary's craft began to enter the portal to another time.
Mei-Wan and Hank fired at anything that approached Jack, giving him the seconds he needed to reach the device and stop the G'voda.
The body of Admiral Jeremiah McCall convulsed as an ancient inhuman force wrestled control back from him.
Your son will die for this, Jeremiah! Setacvas told the mind he pushed down with all the power he had available.
More than half the G'voda had been damaged or destroyed, and those remaining had little opportunity to target Jack McCall. They were too busy defending themselves from the phaser fire filling the air.
"STOP HIM!!!" Setacvas screamed as he pointed to Jack who was only twenty feet from the device.
Jack fired a last phaser blast at the machine, causing a section of it to explode, sending out small bits of metal debris. A pulse of energy splashed across the time portal, buffeting Zachary's ship as the forward part of its hull entered on its way to elsewhen.
Jack dropped his phaser rifle to the ground and still at a dead run, pulled his arm back. With all the strength he had, Jack McCall pitched the isolinear tag toward the device. Before it even had a chance to land on its target he tapped his comm badge.
"Falco, target is tagged!" he yelled as he hit the ground and the tag attached itself to the device and opened, sending out a signal powerful enough to get past the dispersal field. "Open fire!"
***
On the bridge of the Abdiel, Paul Falco stared at his viewscreen as the signal came through.
"Fire quantum torpedoes," he ordered.
***
Back on the surface, Hank had already given the order for his security team to pull back.
"Jack!" Mei-Wan shouted. "Come on!" She knew when the torpedoes impacted, the only chance any of them had to survive was to be back over the hill, but Jack was pinned down by G'voda fire. He couldn't move.
Hank Evans, busy firing at Zachary's craft, trying to damage its engines, called out to Mei-Wan. "Get over that hill, now!"
"I'm waiting for Jack!" she yelled as she took aim at the G'voda firing at her husband. She blasted away at one of the metal creatures with her phaser rifle.
But that only alerted the G'voda to her location.
Hank grabbed Mei-Wan and pulled her back a fraction of a second before the G'voda weapons' fire struck her position. They fell to the ground together.
Mei-Wan rolled over and saw Jack reaching his rifle. Instead of running her direction, Jack aimed his weapon and fired at the ship entering the time portal.
"Jack, run!" she cried out.
But Hank took aim at someone else--- someone who had noticed what they were trying to do.
Setacvas saw the isolinear tag on the framework of the temporal device. He knew he had no choice. The body he inhabited would have to be sacrificed. He would have to use his power to...
A phaser blast from Hank Evans' rifle struck Setacvas in the leg. The sensation of such intense pain was far too much for his mind to work through in such a short time. As he fought the consuming agony, he rolled on the ground and looked up just in time to see a group of quantum torpedoes coming down out of the sky, screaming toward their location.
"NO!!!" he howled in rage.
At that exact moment, Jack McCall fired at Zachary's ship, hitting the engine which exploded, sending a burst of energy outward in all directions.
Jack looked up just as the quantum torpedo spread was about three seconds away. He knew he couldn't escape the blast.
He stopped. His eyes searched for Mei-Wan and found her ninety feet away. He smiled at her and mouthed the word, "Goodbye."
Mei-Wan refused to accept his surrender to the inevitable. "No, Jack! Run!"
Hank Evans pulled her toward the top of the hill just as the torpedoes hit the time device.
Mei-Wan saw Jack engulfed in a wave of energy that burst forth from the G'voda machine. "Jack!" she screamed.
Blinding energy expanded outward at hypersonic speed.
Half a moment later, the energy wave struck Mei-Wan. Jack! her mind cried out in desperation.
Then Darkness.
Darkness...
Nothing…
- - -
It was dark.
Mei-Wan felt odd.
"Jack?" she whispered.
She finally realized she was lying down... in a bed.
Mei-Wan slowly became aware of her surroundings. Despite the darkness, she was in a bedroom, but exactly where...
Then it made sense.
She was aboard the Chamberlain. She was back in her quarters... their quarters.
She felt movement next to her. Someone sleeping.
"Jack?" she asked again, still finding it difficult to move. She felt so tired.
He rolled over to her, placing his arm around her waist.
Mei-Wan relaxed.
Somehow we're back on the ship, she thought. I'm here with Jack.
She pulled his arm around her tightly. A soft moan came from behind her as she enjoyed the feel of his bare skin against hers.
That machine, it must have reset the timeline somehow, she assured herself. We were so close to the blast while the machine was active...
Mei-Wan took a deep breath and relaxed. It was all over. They'd stopped the G'voda. And even more... she and Jack were together again. She'd have time to figure all the details out in the morning.
Wait, she thought. How can I know any of this? If the timeline were reset I shouldn't remember anything about what just happened.
But the warmth of his body against her bare back was too intoxicating. She was exhausted.
I wonder... she tried to think, but she let it go. She decided to let sleep take her. "Goodnight, Jack," she said just as her mind gave into the demands of her body.
He mumbled something.
She'd leave it until morning. She was where she wanted to be.
A small light next to the bed came on as he sat up next to her.
"Mei, who the hell is Jack?" a voice that wasn't nearly deep enough said.
Mei-Wan bolted awake. She rolled over quickly.
Next to her, he rubbed the slumber out of his eyes. He had dark hair and rugged good looks, but...
He wasn't Jack McCall.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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Dark Horizon Story and Characters Copyright ©2004 Michael Gray
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